NADH in the context of Respiratory complex I

Oxidative phosphorylation or electron transport-linked phosphorylation or terminal oxidation, is the metabolic pathway in which cells use enzymes to oxidize nutrients, thereby releasing chemical energy in order to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP). In eukaryotes, this takes place inside mitochondria. Almost all aerobic organisms carry out oxidative phosphorylation. This pathway is so pervasive because it releases more energy than fermentation.

In aerobic respiration, the energy stored in the chemical bonds of glucose is released by the cell in glycolysis and subsequently the citric acid cycle, producing carbon dioxide and the energetic electron donors NADH and FADH₂. Oxidative phosphorylation uses these molecules and O₂ to produce ATP, which is used throughout the cell whenever energy is needed. During oxidative phosphorylation, electrons are transferred from the electron donors to a series of electron acceptors in a series of redox reactions ending in oxygen, whose reaction releases half of the total energy.

Glycolysis is the metabolic pathway that converts glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) into pyruvate and, in most organisms, occurs in the liquid part of cells (the cytosol). The free energy released in this process is used to form the high-energy molecules adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). Glycolysis is a sequence of ten reactions catalyzed by enzymes.

The wide occurrence of glycolysis in other species indicates that it is an ancient metabolic pathway. Indeed, the reactions that make up glycolysis and its parallel pathway, the pentose phosphate pathway, can occur in the oxygen-free conditions of the Archean oceans, also in the absence of enzymes, catalyzed by metal ions, meaning this is a plausible prebiotic pathway for abiogenesis.

In molecular biology and biochemistry, glycoconjugates are a subfamily for carbohydrates where saccharides are covalently linked with proteins, peptides, lipids. Glycoconjugates are formed in processes termed glycosylation. Glycoconjugates are involved in cell–cell interactions, including cell–cell recognition; in cell–matrix interactions; and in detoxification processes.

Although the important molecular species DNA, RNA, ATP, cAMP, cGMP, NADH, NADPH, and coenzyme A all contain a carbohydrate part, generally they are not considered as glycoconjugates.

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH or LD) is an enzyme found in nearly all living cells. LDH catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to lactate and back, as it converts NAD to NADH and back. A dehydrogenase is an enzyme that transfers a hydride from one molecule to another.

LDH exists in four distinct enzyme classes. This article is specifically about the NAD(P)-dependent L-lactate dehydrogenase. Other LDHs act on D-lactate and/or are dependent on cytochrome c: D-lactate dehydrogenase (cytochrome) and L-lactate dehydrogenase (cytochrome).